Frustrated Spin Systems: History of the Emergence of a Modern Physics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development and properties of frustrated spin systems, highlighting their complex phase transitions, and presents recent findings on skyrmions arising from frustration in magnetic materials.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive historical overview and introduces new results on skyrmions caused by frustration and competing interactions in magnetic systems.

Findings

Frustrated spin systems exhibit unique properties that challenge traditional analysis methods.

Exact solutions exist for certain 2D frustrated Ising models.

Recent results include quantum spin-wave analysis of skyrmions under magnetic fields.

Abstract

In 1977, G\'erard Toulouse has proposed a new concept termed as "frustration" in spin systems. Using this definition, several frustrated models have been created and studied, among them we can mention the Villain's model, the fully frustrated simple cubic lattice, the antiferromagnetic triangular lattice. The former models are systems with mixed ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic bonds, while in the latter containing only an antiferromagnetic interaction, the frustration is caused by the lattice geometry. These frustrated spin systems have novel properties that we will review in this paper. One of the striking aspects is the fact that well-established methods such as the renormalization group fail to deal with the nature of the phase transition in frustrated systems. Investigations of properties of frustrated spin systems have been intensive since the 80's. I myself got involved in several investigations of frustrated spin systems soon after my PhD. I have learned a lot from numerous discussions with G\'erard Toulouse. Until today, I am still working on frustrated systems such as skyrmions. In this review, I trace back a number of my works over the years on frustrated spin systems going from exactly solved 2D Ising frustrated models, to XY and Heisenberg 2D and 3D frustrated lattices. At the end I present my latest results on skyrmions resulting from the frustration caused by the competition between the exchange interaction and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction under an applied magnetic field. A quantum spin-wave theory using the Green's function method is shown and discussed.